ABSTRACT
A pyruvate test for glucose tolerance was used during prophylactic medical examination of 47 students and 27 children without risk factors, 54 students with risk factors, 31 patients with type I diabetes mellitus and 220 construction workers in order to test a new methodological basis for the strategy of primary prevention of diabetes mellitus. The investigations showed the presence in a general population of 3-modal distribution of a variant of the capillary blood pyruvate level on the 120th min. of a GTT according to physiological glucose tolerance, potential (prediabetic) and actual (diabetic) carbohydrate metabolic derangements. A high informative value of the pyruvate test for glucose tolerance makes this method appropriate for identification of persons, genetically predisposed to the development of diabetes mellitus, for implementation of a population strategy of prevention of this disease as well as strategy of prevention of diabetes among persons with risk factors.